Irony Alert: Pirate Bay Gets Hacked, User Database Stolen

The Pirate Bay, the file-sharing network based in Sweden that content companies say is one of the largest contributors to copyright infringement in the world, has apparently been hacked by a trio of Argentinian programmers. The group claims to have downloaded the site’s entire user database, including the names, IP addresses and email addresses of 4 million registered users who have used the network to find illegal copies of movies, music and software. It’s not clear what the hackers intend to do with the information, but the group’s leader admits that he is aware the media and entertainment industry would be very interested in it.

The hacker, who goes by the name Ch Russo, posted about the exploit on his blog and even included a video describing how the hack was executed using what is known as an “SQL injection” method, which targeted the site’s database software and tricked it into allowing the hackers to download the information. Russo says on his blog that the exploit was not difficult and suggests that the group did it merely to show that it was possible:

As any other website, as any other system or mechanism, http://www.thepiratebay.org has robust parts and soft spots. We beleive [sic] that the people behind this comunity [sic] always acted with the local laws on their side, and so have we. The community caused problems to huge companies and corporations which turned into threats between this [sic] companies and them. What we have done, we did not do it with anger, or for commercial value. As always, we saw the change, the moment and decided to take it.

Russo told computer-security writer and former Washington Post reporter Brian Krebs in a phone interview that while he knew the information could be very valuable, “we are not [trying] to sell it.” The hacker said he wanted users of the site to know that their personal information could be compromised. Since the news of the exploit emerged earlier this week, there have been several reports that the Pirate Bay has patched the SQL hole that allowed the hackers to gain entry (the site is currently down).

It’s not the first time that usernames, passwords and emails have been stolen — the site was hacked in a similar way in 2007. There have been allegations in the past that media companies have financed attacks on the site, which has been the subject of numerous copyright infringement lawsuits. The founders of the service are currently appealing a decision in a Swedish court that found them guilty and sentenced them to a year in jail and more than $3.6 million in fines.